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Cost of information is going upBy DONNA MURRAY ALLEN
© St. Petersburg Times, Genealogy has become a billion-dollar industry, with upstart companies vying for a share of what has become a lucrative market. Even the government is cashing in. A year ago, copies of military service files, complete military pension records and bounty-land warrant applications cost $10 each. Now you'll pay from $14.75 to $37 per file. Not to be outdone, the Social Security Administration just raised its fee for a copy of an original application form from $7 to $27. It's $29 if you don't know the person's Social Security number. The form, about half the size of a regular sheet of paper, includes name, address, employer, birth date, birthplace and parents' full names. In my opinion, the information is now overpriced, with two exceptions. The form may enable you to obtain a female ancestor's unmarried name, and it might be the only proof of birth available for an immigrant ancestor. Keep in mind that the Social Security Act was not passed until 1935. Anyone who died before then won't have a Social Security number. For a copy of any deceased person's application form, write to the Social Security Administration, FOIA Workgroup, P.O. Box 17772, Baltimore, MD 21290. Include as much demographic information as you can. Do not include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. (Log on to www.ssa.gov/ for details.) A quicker, do-it-yourself alternative is the Social Security Death Index. Some of that information is free. Simply log on to the SSDI at ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com or the Mormon site at www.familysearch.org and plug your ancestor's name into the search box. (The SSDI is also available on CD-ROM at most large libraries.) An online search may turn up dozens of possibilities for common names like John Smith. I got 22 hits for Henry Shelley. His name, Social Security number, birth and death dates, last residence and state where his card was issued appear on screen. I knew Shelley's birth and death date, so I immediately scrolled to the one I wanted. Under Tools on the right side of the screen, I clicked on "letter," which linked me to a form letter for downloading. I sent the letter and a check to the SSA and within a few weeks got a copy of his original application. (That was before the price went up.) The SSDI database has several drawbacks. Few people who died before 1962 are on it because that's when the agency started computerizing records. Anyone whose death was not reported to the Social Security Administration won't be on it either. Don't assume that the state in which the Social Security card was issued is where the applicant was born. Henry Shelley's card was issued in Pennsylvania. He was born in New Jersey. Another word of caution. The SSDI gives Henry Shelley's last residence as Scottdale, Pa., in Westmoreland County. The town is in Westmoreland County, but Scottdale's rural routes extend about a mile into neighboring Fayette County, which is where my grandfather actually lived. Knowing the precise location is essential for researching courthouse records. ZIP codes have changed through the years, too. Thus, what you see on the SSDI may be misleading. Now that SSA fees have skyrocketed, you might find it more profitable to simply extract clues from the free SSDI database and use them to track down such documents as death certificates, obituaries and wills that cost less to obtain and yield much more vital information. No matter how you obtain a copy of the original form, remember that the information may be flawed. On his application, my grandfather gave his mother's birth name as Anna M. Gary. His sister's application says Anna McGarry. Obituaries for two siblings identify her as Anna McGarrity. * * * Donna Murray Allen welcomes your questions about genealogy and will respond to those of general interest in future columns. Sorry, she can't take phone calls, but you can write to her c/o Home & Garden, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail her at rootscolumn@aol.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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